Posted by: Neil McKay Category: NWAA news Date: Friday, January 14, 2011

The NWAA has signed a deal worth more than £200,000 with The Advance Consultancy to help aerospace companies in the region bid collaboratively for large contracts.

The contract forms part of the NWAA’s £7 million Aerospace Supply Chain Excellence 2 (ASCE 2) Programme delivered by the NWAA and funded by the Northwest Regional Development (NWDA) and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).

ASCE 2 aims to secure a competitive base of world-class suppliers in the North West aerospace sector by driving forward five key priorities, extended enterprise, skills provision, innovation, commodity groups, and shared services.

Gordon Owen, commodity groups manager for the NWAA, said the project is vital in order to establish greater integration across the North West aerospace supply chain and pursue wider business opportunities.

He explained: “The aerospace industry is constantly changing, and through consultations with key aerospace stakeholders, the North West aerospace industry has recognised the need for a collaborative and integrated approach to respond towards the trend of through-life single contracts and risk sharing partnerships.

“We are confident that creating the extended enterprise model will provide the glue that binds collaboration between separate companies with common needs to successfully bid for larger work packages.”

Norman Kerfoot, managing director of Staffordshire based The Advance Consultancy, added: “The objective of the NWAA extended enterprise team is to drive excellence within the North West aerospace industry through the development of collaborative high performance initiatives in order to provide a long term sustainable North West aerospace sector.

“We are fully focussed on working with all of the key organisations and people on the programme to ensure outstanding results are delivered over the coming months.”